elspode, it was my turn last weekend (sort of) (LONG)

[plthijinx]

well to start off with, this year has started out pretty shitty. last thursday i picked my son up from his mom's apartment and we went to Mcdonalds for supper and on to the house to hang out. later on when i took him back to the ex's (shannon from here on out) i stayed for quite awhile to just hang out w/him and her and watch finding nemo. shannon and i still get along pretty well, so it's cool. anyway, right when i was about to leave at 10:00pm he got sick on her wicker sofa. what a mess. he'd been a little under the weather by the way of his diapers (he's 2) but we didn't think too much of it until he threw up. we cleaned up everything and got him situated in his bed and i went on home.

i only worked a half day friday because my son was not doing so well. he couldn't hold anything down including water, soda, etc... i showed up at the apartement around 12:15 or so with pedialite
in hand. it seemed to work ok for a while, at least while i was there. when my ex-mother-in-law showed up i went on ahead and went back to the house. a couple of hours later i get a phone call from shannon saying that she thinks we need to take him to the hospital because he'd gotten sick again and was almost lethargic. i went back over there to try and see what i could do to help and a few minutes after i arrived the doctor had called and said that we needed to go on ahead and take him to the emergency room and that she'd call ahead and let them know that we were on the way with a dehydrated baby. boy, let me tell you, an emergency room on a holiday weekend is madness! the place was packed! we went to admitting/triage and asked if our
doctor had called and of course they said no. side note here people, if your doctor says that he/she is going to call and they say that they have not, call your doctor immediatey!! there
was a break down in communication. my dad is a surgeon here in town and i asked him about call-ins and he said he doesn't bother with them anymore because for some reason the message
never gets to the desk. even if, like in our case we found out the next day, the doctor orders an I.V. for the patient while they wait. anyway, we arrive there at around 6:30 or so and went through triage and then waited. and waited. around 12:30am the ER head nurse came out and told everyone that the ER was now on drive-by status for ambulances and that they were going to direct walk-ins to other hospitals as well. then she said that it was going to be roughly 4-5 hours before most of us would be seen. at this point my son had stopped vomiting (he had'nt the whole time we were there) and was taking in fluids and crackers so we felt as if we could go back to shannon's apartment and take care of him there and come back if necessary.

saturday i woke up around noon or so and called shannon to see how our son was doing. not too bad, a little thirsty but not too bad. boy was the doctor pissed when she found out the ER never got the message or passed it along to triage. anyway i showed up with several flavors of gatorade in hand b/c he wasn't drinking the pedialite any longer. he took to the gatorade ok and things seemed much better than the night before. i hung out for a while then went back to my house to take a nap. here's where everything started getting fubared. around five or so shannon called me and told me that she was going to call an ambulance if the doctor didn't call back soon and that our son was getting sick,
not drinking, and being lethargic again only worse than the night before. i got up and not 15-20 minutes later she called again telling me the ambulance was on the way. they had come and gone by the time i got to her apartment and she only lives 10
minutes from my house. anyway they took him to a different hospital than we went to the night before and thank heavens! he wasn't there 20 minutes (with a crowded ER) and
he was in a room. (slang is this b/c he came in on an ambulance or they realized his condition?) about 15 minutes after we got him in there he got sick. we're talking lunch from 3 days ago sick and that bought him an automatic I.V. i felt so helpless for him. standing there and not knowing what to do to help him feel better. after a while the ER doc came in and looked him over and
told us that if he didn't respond well to the I.V. that he was going to have to stay in their CDU ward (Clinical Decision Unit) over night but that it was only a 23 hour ward and that he'd
have to transfer to another hospital if need be b/c the hospital we were in didn't have pediatrics. well as it turned out he had to stay over night. since i live about 5 mins or less from the hospital
we decided that i would go home for the night and if they needed anything i would be right there. i fell asleep around 1:30 or so and the phone rang at 5:00. they needed more diapers and needed me to run some errands for them. i showed up at the CDU at about 5:15 or so and he was sleeping but did not look good at all. he would try to wake up but his eyes would just sag and his lids would close. poor guy. i stayed until around 6 or so and then ran the errands for trevor and shannon. later i returned around 10 with his favorite blanket and his pooh bear puppet/cape fresh out of the dryer (he'd gotten sick on them overnight) that day was a living hell to see my son, let alone a
two year old in that condition. elspode, you have my upmost respect sir. for those of you who
have been following his tribulations, you know what i mean. by twelve o'clock he was halfway through
his second I.V. and was sort of awake. then by four he was drinking water, tea, sprite and ice chips.
later on they changed out his I.V. for another and things were on the up and up. he was playing
with the controls on the bed, asking me to play movies for him and the like. at 8:30 we were
discharged. god what a night/day/evening/weekend.

monday i went to the apartment to see my boy and when i got there he tried to get up from
laying on the couch to say hi to me but i told him to rest and be still. he fell right back to sleep.
we kept trying to wake him to take a drink but he'd refuse to drink. this went on for a few hours.
we had written it off as him being exhausted from the weekend and didn't think much of it. when
i was leaving shannon asked me to go get the prescription from her truck and take it with me
and drop it off at the walgreens so if they needed it they wouldn't have to wait (it was for nausia) i looked all over that truck and finally found it under the rear seat. on the handout they gave us when we left it said that "come back immediately if:" excessive sleeping, no fluid intake, no urine for 8 hours, etc..... he had peed but the other two left something to be desired. we called the doc right away. funny thing here is that he realized what we were doing and almost immediately started drinking his sprite! he went from a lethargic type sleep to "boing!" gimme something to drink!! he didn't want to go back to the ER! by the time we'd gotten off the phone with the doc he'd drank a whole sprite and about a cup and a half of water! then about an hour later he asked mommy for an egg! it was such a relief. today is wednesday and he's doing wonderful now. apparently he had an intestinal virus that was diagnosed as a strain of e-coli. i can't remember the term. gastertinitis or something? anyone? sorry for the long-assed post but just wanted to talk about it is all and to thank all paramedics/emt's and the ER nurses and doctors at west houston memorial. thanks guys.

[wolf]

Sorry to hear about your trials and tribulations with the little guy. Hope things have finally turned around for him!

[plthijinx]

he's made almost a complete recovery. aside from being a little weak from lack of nutrition. he was bouncing (almost) around the apartment tonight, a sure sign of recovery

[Griff]

Its amazing with kids, how quick they get hit by stuff and how fast they recover. So who do you think poisoned him, McDons?

[insoluble]

gastroenteritis.
you should call an ambulance more often - sick kids are tricky.

[Riddil]

Phew, yeah that sounds like a tough weekend. And people wonder why dads have thinning hair.

[Elspode]

My son is basically a 22 year old adult, although his brain injury actually puts him more in the position of an older teen in both attitude and emotional stability. However, his ordeal started when he was only 10 (earlier, if you count the years we spent trying to figure out why his physical and mental capacities were slowly declining).

All this to say that you *never* get used to the sight of your child suffering. You can't...you wouldn't be human if you became inurred to such a thing. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I would gladly let the doctors cut, poke, prod and otherwise abuse me in any way they wished if they could guarantee to leave my kid out of it from now on.

Kudos to you for being there, man. There's an awful lot of 'parents' that just don't get it.

[jinx]

Originally posted by Elspode


Kudos to you for being there, man. There's an awful lot of 'parents' that just don't get it.

True and very sad. We spent a lot of time at CHOP with our son when he was 6 mos old. At one point he was admitted for a week, and in a room with 3 other babies. Aside from simply being there with him in that condition, watching the other mothers regularly leave their babies alone - to go smoke, hit mcdonalds etc was really hard for me. One of the smoking mothers babies was in an oxygen tent.... I had a really hard time not picking a fight with her...
Anyway, the ER sucks, I spent most of an entire weekend waiting in CHOP's ER once, I wouldn't wish that experience on anyone.
Glad the little one is better! Both my kids had a similar sounding illness right before xmas (and they don't eat mcdonals, lol), bizarre how fast it hit them.

[plthijinx]

Originally posted by Griff
So who do you think poisoned him, McDons?

that's my only guess. but i ate one of his chicken nuggets and didn't get sick. then again, my immune system is a little stronger...

Originally posted by insoluble
gastroenteritis.
you should call an ambulance more often - sick kids are tricky.

yeah, not only that, but you get seen quicker too!

Originally posted by Elspode
Kudos to you for being there, man. There's an awful lot of 'parents' that just don't get it.

and they deserve a 2x4 upside the head.


well, a few more grey hairs showed up out of the whole ordeal but here we are on saturday and he's over here and were watching the jungle book now. i'm just taking a little break to poke my head in the cellar as i've been too busy and away from home to check things out or too tired to write when i would get home so late. he's definitely got his appetite back, he had 3, yes THREE hot dogs for lunch!! thanks for the support guys!!

[elSicomoro]

From what I've read and seen, E. coli seems to affect children more than adults, and is incredibly damaging to them. Keep an eye on your son's kidneys over time, as they seem to be most affected by the bacteria.

Some of you might remember the outbreak at Jack in the Box restaurants out west in 1993...most of the victims were kids, with 4 of them dying. We had an outbreak in the Philadelphia area in 2000, involving kids getting sick after visiting a petting farm. Over 60 wound up infected with it. Very sad stuff.

[lumberjim]

here's a thought......don't feed your kid garbage.

i know i sound like a dick. i know you love your kid(s).....but damn! 2 yr old eating mcdonalds? sprite in the recovery bed? HOT DOGS?! a day later? christ! sorry if i sound harsh, but c'mon, give the boy whole food that his body can handle more easily. and no more soda and hot dogs......


I'm not saying it's your fault that he got sick, and i think you did really well taking care of him. I just think you should think more carefully about what you feed the little bugger.

[elSicomoro]

Of course, crap food CAN be incorporated into an overall healthy diet...

[plthijinx]

nah. i see what your saying LJ no biggy, your right. i actually do feed him "good" food. just new years day didn't feel like cooking so i took the easy way out and ran through the drive thru. hey Syc what's up with the kidney thing? e. coli causes long term kidney damage?

[elSicomoro]

It depends on the strain. The incidents above were caused by E. coli O157:H7. From the CDC:

In some persons, particularly children under 5 years of age and the elderly, the infection can also cause a complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome, in which the red blood cells are destroyed and the kidneys fail. About 2%-7% of infections lead to this complication. In the United States, hemolytic uremic syndrome is the principal cause of acute kidney failure in children, and most cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome are caused by E. coli O157:H7.

...

About one-third of persons with hemolytic uremic syndrome have abnormal kidney function many years later, and a few require long-term dialysis. Another 8% of persons with hemolytic uremic syndrome have other lifelong complications, such as high blood pressure, seizures, blindness, paralysis, and the effects of having part of their bowel removed.